It is well known in motor vehicles to restrain an occupant in the seat by a lap belt disposed across the lap and a shoulder belt disposed diagonally across the chest. It is also known to connect the outboard belt ends to the door so that the belt is automatically moved between a restraining position about the occupant and a stowed position forwardly of the seat in response to movement of the door between open and closed positions. It is common in such passive belt systems to connect the outboard end of the lap belt to the door generally adjacent the hip of the occupant.
It has been recognized as desirable to move the outboard lap belt end forwardly and/or upwardly upon opening of the door to facilitate occupant ingress or egress. U.S. Pat. No. Keppel et al 3,680,883, issued Aug. 1, 1972, and assigned to the assignee of this invention, provides a track on the door having a guide loop traveling therein to move the outboard lap belt end forwardly and upwardly upon opening of the door.
Other prior art devices such as U.S. Pat. Nos. Westrate et al 3,815,934, issued June 11, 1974 and Keppel et al 3,770,078, issued Nov. 6, 1973, and assigned to the assignee of this invention, provide a reel driven by a motor or a door responsive drive mechanism which winds a cord attached to the lap belt to pull the lap belt forwardly and upwardly upon opening movement of the door.
Another prior art device of Pat. No. 4,138,142 by Wize provides a door mounted passive three-point lap and shoulder belt system wherein the unwinding of the shoulder belt from a door mounted retractor adjacent the hip of the occupant and toward a door mounted shoulder height anchor loop in response to opening movement of the door lifts the lap belt along the door and off the lap of the occupant to a stowed position generally parallel with the shoulder belt.